Alexander De Witt (April 2, 1798 – January 13, 1879) was a 19th-century American politician from the state of

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. Born in New Braintree, Massachusetts, De Witt worked in textile manufacturing in

Oxford, Massachusetts Oxford is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,347 as of the 2020 United States Census. It was the birthplace of Clara Barton, the first president and founder of the American Red Cross. History Pre-Co ...

. Active in politics as a Democrat, he was elected to the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into ...

in 1830, serving until 1836. He served in the Massachusetts State Senate in 1842, 1844, 1850, and 1851. An anti-slavery activist, De Witt later joined the

Free Soil Party The Free Soil Party, also called the Free Democratic Party or the Free Democracy, was a political party in the United States from 1848 to 1854, when it merged into the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party. The party was focused o ...

. As a Free Soiler he was elected to the United States Congress in 1853. In January 1854, he was one of six signatories of the "Appeal of the Independent Democrats", drafted to oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act. After the demise of the Free Soil Party, De Witt joined the American Party, then the only major party with an anti-slavery platform. He won a second term in 1854, and served in the 34th Congress. He was defeated in his 1856 bid for reelection and returned to his previous work as a textile manufacturer. De Witt later became a Republican, and supported the Union during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

by participating in efforts to recruit and equip soldiers for Massachusetts regiments. De Witt died in Oxford on January 13, 1879. He is buried in Oxford's South Cemetery.Town of Oxford, MA - Rules and Regulations

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:De Witt, Alexander 1798 births 1879 deaths People from New Braintree, Massachusetts Free Soil Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts Know-Nothing members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts People from Oxford, Massachusetts Activists from Massachusetts 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives 19th-century members of the Massachusetts General Court